Reilly is an impoverished painter in a shabby garret in Edwardian London, with only his unsold canvases and his dog Nimrod for company, in this "tightly wound, often nail-biting" mystery (Guardian, London) by novelist and radio producer Chris Paling. Against all odds, the most influential art critic of the time then begins to notice the artist's talent, but no sooner has Reilly found a patron than the critic turns up drowned in a canal, and the evidence points directly to Reilly. From his prison cell, the artist's tale moves to an exclusive gallery in modern Soho, where a young office assistant named Samantha is drawn to one of Reilly's paintings and embarks on her own investigation into the identity of the real murderer.